Illinois FY24 SJSP

The Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority (ICJIA) serves as the Illinois Statistical Analysis Center (SAC). The SAC requests funds for two projects: a) a core-capacity building project titled, “Developing an automated data request, submission, and validation system for collection of criminal justice data” and b) a special-emphasis project titled, “Evaluating the availability and completeness of jail data in Illinois criminal history records.” The core-capacity project seeks to significantly enhance the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority's data management capabilities by developing an Automated Data Collection, Validation, and Reporting Tool/Framework. The initiative will automate data requests, submissions, validations, and reporting to improve efficiency, accuracy, and timeliness in managing criminal justice data. By centralizing and dynamically presenting data, this system will not only streamline reporting processes but also establish a permanent, interactive platform for data analysis. This directly supports the core emphasis goal of making criminal justice data more accessible and actionable. Integrating various data sources will provide comprehensive insights into criminal justice operations. The deliverables include: 1) an Automated Alert/Notification System, tailored for different data collection schedules and requirements; and 2) a Data Validation & Reporting Mechanism, featuring a robust validation tool that ensures data adheres to predefined formats and standards, alongside a reporting dashboard for data tracking and visualization. This project will notably enhance the management and visibility of data sets from the Adult Redeploy Illinois and Drone Surveillance programs. The special-emphasis project seeks to enhance the accuracy and completeness of criminal justice records by conducting a rigorous analysis of jail records retrieved from the Illinois Criminal History Record Information database (CHRI) and the Illinois Department of Corrections. Supported by prior SJS funding to fulfill the state requirement of performing an annual audit of state-wide CHRI data, ICJIA has found gaps and inconsistencies in prison records. This project aims to extend this analysis to jail records, addressing these discrepancies to improve the overall quality and completeness of criminal justice system data. The deliverables for this project include: 1) an online article documenting the findings from the analysis and recommendations to address the gaps and missing jail data; and 2) a web-based visualization tool showing the results of the analysis along with a long-term tracker of jail records across various sources.